One of the great things about moving into a new home is getting to meet the neighbors. You never know who might be living right next door.
Take, for instance, the cast of characters that surrounds us at our new naturalist department home, the Hickory Knolls Discovery Center. The fox squirrels that live in the savanna just outside our west windows were some of the first to make themselves known. Fox squirrels, in general, tend to be about twice the size of gray squirrels, and “ours” are no exception. Chunky and plump, they are no doubt one of the reasons we’ve also gotten to meet the neighbors from across the way, the coyotes and red-tailed hawks.
As a matter of fact, one of the redtail kids was over the other day. As neighbors kids often do, he was looking for a snack. And he found one, or, actually, several, right outside our back door.
Josh, our creative and hardworking exhibit designer, had stacked several hundred pounds of rocks there and was using them to landscape our new Blanding’s turtle pond. One dark, rainy afternoon, in weather only a toad cold love, he was sorting through some of the larger rocks and encountered a gathering of, go figure, toads.
Our amphibian neighbors had found the microclimate created by the rockpile to be quite to their liking and had congregated there en masse. It wasn’t long before they attracted the attention of the young red-tail.
Although we all like to picture the majestic image of hawks soaring high in the sky, scanning the landscape with keen eyes for warm-blooded prey that only surrenders after a dramatic and extended pursuit, the truth of the matter is, a meal is a meal. The young redtail, still displaying the Xxed tail feathers of his XX plumage, plunked down toads like a hungry kid at White Castle chowing down sliders.
He left that day with a bulging crop but has been seen several times since, the most recent being on Wednesday when he was toying with something—a mouse? a bug?—in the car pool vehicle parking space outside our front door.
We know there’s also a pair of redtails that call Hickory Knolls home; perhaps they’re Junior’s parents. How long he’s allowed to stick around will be up to them, but
Another neighbor we’re hoping is here to stay, though it’s too soon to tell, is a red-headed woodpecker. My friend Barb, her sister Anna and their dear mom Mary had come for a visit last Sunday, and noticed the redhead flitting about in the savanna.
We’d seen a couple of redheads in the same area last year, but they didn’t stick around. This year’s redhead has been around for almost a week now, and we keep looking for the arrival of its mate—as I’m sure it is, too. Having redheads living right next door would be XX, especially considering that the bird’s numbers have been declining for some time now due to habitat loss.
Pam Otto is the manager of nature programs and interpretive services for the St. Charles Park District. She can be reached at potto@stcparks.org or 630-513-4346.